Game's all in the mind

Tomorrow's Division One Play-off Final has more threads to it than a Jo Brand jumper, but it is on the two managers that most of the attention will focus. On the one hand you have Iain Dowie, a selfconfessed West Ham fanatic, managing a Crystal Palace team who wouldn't be at Cardiff if Brian Deane hadn't scored that late Hammers equaliser at Wigan on the season's final day.

Opposing him will be Alan Pardew, who enjoyed his best years as a player at Selhurst Park and has since known exactly what it feels like to lose a play-off final while with Reading.

There are other similarities, not least in that they have both accepted the challenge of clubs with great potential but lots of problems.

Big things are predicted for both men, but how quickly either progresses will be largely decided by who emerges victorious tomorrow.

Both men have also embraced modern management techniques, utilising everything at their disposal in an effort to squeeze another one or two per cent from their players.

There was a time when football psychology was limited to pre-match managerial gems such as: "My missus thinks you're a load of jessies so go out and prove her wrong."

Happily, motivational techniques have moved on since then and Dowie and Pardew do not undervalue the mental side of the game.

Dowie is an intelligent individual, with an engineering degree, who talks and thinks in a logical fashion.

His fitness coach is Australian John Harbin and, between them, they have introduced earlier training starts, afternoon swimming, boxing exercises and greater emphasis on weight training and warm-ups.

Such is the measure of the job Dowie has done at Palace, a club staring relegation in the face when he took over, that he has already been linked with bigger managerial jobs.

Dowie believes that his adversary tomorrow is also a thinking man's manager.

"Alan is cerebral in the way he thinks about the game," he said. "He did a magnificent job at Reading.

"He pushed on at a club that needed to be pushed. Now he's proving himself to be the man for the occasion at West Ham."

Pardew is no less complimentary about Dowie. "The way he and I look at the game is not too dissimilar," he said. "He has done a fantastic job so far at Palace and he makes sure his team is always well prepared.

"I think it will be a tight game. They like to play on the front foot and Iain has instilled a positive attitude and a spirit into their play which has made all the difference."

If Pardew is right, it might all come down to luck in the end, perhaps a mistimed tackle, a mishit shot, a deflection, a sending-off or even, perish the thought, penalties.

One of the signs at West Ham's training ground reads "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity" and both managers will be hoping that combination works for them tomorrow.

An example of how Pardew tries to maximise his advantage occurred before West Ham's semi-final, second leg at home to Ipswich.

The night before, Pardew travelled to Sunderland for Palace's semi-final.

Pardew said: "When the game kicked off in the Stadium of Light, the stadium was only two thirds full. That wasn't Mick McCarthy's fault but it shouldn't have been like that.

"I had a bit more influence over things because of the importance of our game, so I made sure all the TV screens were off around the concourses at Upton Park.

"It was only a small thing but it meant our fans were in their positions and ready when the teams ran out.

"My view is in English football generally we don't give enough back to the fans. I've heard the view that it is the team which stimulates the fans and while that's true, we can do more for them.

"At some grounds in England you can't even get a drink, let alone something remotely eatable.

"Quite frankly, that's not good enough. At the moment all the rewards go to the players and that has to change otherwise you run the danger of losing the people who matter the most."

Neither Pardew nor Dowie would claim that, as players, they were anywhere near the thoroughbred class, but they were both decent, able professionals and in the Palace manager's case a seasoned international for Northern Ireland.

Management, though, is quite different. "The best player in the world may not be a successful manager," Dowie said.

"I don't know if Thierry Henry wants to be a manager. If he does, he will walk in on the first day and have the ultimate kudos. But his first training session will tell you all you need to know.

"I believe the job is about letting people fulfil their expectations. I see myself as a kind of teacher, although a lot better paid."

Pardew also has a progressive attitude towards coaching, but that has been interpreted as a kind of "arrogance" by some.

"Arrogance is a horrible trait and I really don't like it," he said. "But maybe my social skills let me down on occasions.

"The bottom line is that I always try to be positive.

"I think it probably takes time for players to warm to me. I don't go out from the start to win their hearts. I try to win their minds and hope their hearts follow. I don't butter people up.

"If I see players behaving as good professionals and getting the best out of themselves then I will give them my wholehearted support. If not, then I have little time for them."